the development of the Uk constitution since 1997 Flashcards
describe the Blair government
the Blair government was under power during the leadership of Tony Blair who was PM of the UK from 1997-2007. Blair believed that the UK constitution was in desperate need of reform as power had become too centralised to Westminster. As a result of this the rights of the Uk citizens were insufficently protected and many had become disengaged in politics due to this.
-could lead to a participation crisis in the UK.
describe the key features of Tony Blair’s constitutional reform programme
-decentralisation of power, power devolved back to the people. Scotland and Wales offered their own elected govts.
-towns and cities given the opportunity to vote for their own mayors e.g mayor of London
-democratisation : public given more influence over decision making
-increaced use of referendums and reform of the house of lords.
Transparency
-role of senior Judiciary reformed to encourage the greater trust of the government by the public
-freedom of information act, opens up the govt, therefore the government will become more accountable to the people
Rights Protection
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what is the definition of devolution?
devolution is the process of delegating power to a lower level, e.g the delegation of power from a central government to a local/ regional level such as giving areas the opportunity to vote for positions such as mayor, e.g the mayor of London
devolution and the introduction of a local government under the Blair Government (1997-2007)
-the first constitutional reform introduced by the labour government in 1997 was the devolution of power to NE, Scotland and wales, which gave these countries the power to govern themselves.
-referendums held in Scotland and Wales, do they want their own elected governments
-Scotland, yes whereas Wales voted largely against this idea
why did Tony Blair want to devolve power to these counties and furthermore why did he want to introduce the devolution of power within England?
Tony Blair wanted to devolve power to these countries because he felt that the government had become too remote and not accountable enough for decisions which it had made by the public. Furthermore it also meant that the policies which were introduced by these governing bodies could be more suited to the area as the individuals in positions of power would be better educated on the issues as they were more likely to come from that area.
what happened to English devolution in 2004?
the plans to extend devolution to England were halted in 2004 as a result of the north east rejecting these plans with a referendum result of 78% against the creation of a regional assembly and 22% for the creation of a regional assembly.
house of lords reform of 1999
-the government introduced legislation to reform the upper house in 1999 which resulted in 1,330 peers being eligible to attend the house of lords with most of there peerages having being granted in a hereditary fashion
-too many hereditary peers which therefore undermines the legitimacy of the house of lords as there are still life peers who are elected by the PM.
-govt compromised the reform as they needed the house of lords to accept it and therefore reduced the number of hereditary peers aloud in the house of lords down to 92.
-was meant to be a two stage reform however there was no other second stage of reform to accompany the house of lords reform of 1999.
house of lords appointments commission (2000)
-the house of lords appointments commission was created to nominate a small proportion of new life peers.
-this was because the government wanted to make the house of lords a more professional governing body rather than a governing body based largely on merit and accomplishment.
